2016 Fletcher Morrow Tournament

Patrick thanks the winners and reiterates our commitment to next year's match in Geelong (hopefully with a different outcome!)

By one o'clock the tournament was ready to start and, thanks to some thoughtful organising by Kevin Perrin, there were enough pieces, boards, cups and cakes for all 30 players and visitors.

The overall tournament score was standing at 2.5 vs 2.5, and although the match was ostensibly just a fun way to pass a chilly Ballarat winter Sunday, you could see on the players faces that there was serious work to be done. Ten boards for the tournament, one board for the reserves playing a rated game.

Ballarat was outplayed for the most part; all three top boards went to Geelong, and our only full points were garnered by Patrick Cook on Board Four, Jamie Brotheridge on Board Nine, and James Eyre on Board Ten. Rob Bailey and Michael Tausz did well to get 1/2 points from higher rated opponents on Boards Seven and Eight. Cassandra Barnett on the reserves board did the same, staving off higher rated Jack Smith for a draw.

Ballarat Geelong Challenge

In 2011 we hosted Geelong Chess Club for Round 5 of the Victorian teams tournament, and at the suggestion of Geelong President Ben Kersten, a match of 10 boards, in the spirit of the famous 1925 and 1926 matches, was arranged, with the top 4 boards counting for the teams competition. Before play commenced, we were presented with a copy of Andrew Wemyss’ splendid history of Geelong Chess Club. The original Ballarat Geelong tournaments were held at the Mechanics' Institute. The revived tourney is being held annually and the teams vie for inscribing their name on the new Fletcher Morrow Shield, donated by Bill Stokie. A memorandum of understanding setting out guidelines for when and how the tournament will be run was signed in 2016 and is available for viewing here. To facilitate planning and room booking, it was decided that the second Sunday in August would be our regular tournament date.